‘Emily Owens’ Michael Rady dishes on playing a doctor, an upcoming love triangle and more

TV Source Magazine recently had a chance to talk with Rady about the show and what’s coming up for his character and the Micah, Emily (Mamie Gummer), Will (Justin Hartley) triangle that will start to take shape as the show goes on. The actor had plenty to say about how much he enjoys his job, despite the long hours and his squeamishness when it comes to blood.

In tonight’s episode of “Emily Owens, M.D.,” Micah (Michael Rady) is confronted with the news that his mother’s treatment for pancreatic cancer is not going well and he’s forced to take a look at his perspective on the situation as both a son and a doctor.

TV Source Magazine recently had a chance to talk with Rady about the show and what’s coming up for his character and the Micah, Emily (Mamie Gummer), Will (Justin Hartley) triangle that will start to take shape as the show goes on. The actor had plenty to say about how much he enjoys his job, despite the long hours and his squeamishness when it comes to blood.

Rady explained that one of the things that drew him to the show in the first place was the Emily Owens character. “She is incredibly likable, quirky and awkward and funny and sweet and you can’t help but like her,” he says. “In the pilot, Micah sees all of those things in her so I like that he’s a man of good taste.” Rady was also drawn to the idea of playing a doctor.

“I’m truthfully just amazed with doctors. I could never, ever be a doctor in my life and I’m so glad there are people out there who can because blood, ugh, I do not do well with blood, even the fake stuff we use. But I’m fascinated and intrigued by that line of work so I was excited to pretend in that world and play around and learn stuff.”

“[Blood] is just horrible,” Rady continues. “It’s weird when we’re doing operating scenes and I’ll turn to our tech advisors, they’re working surgeons and doctors, and I’ll say, ‘hey, is this enough blood on my hands?’ Just the fact that they know how much blood should be on my hands…I’ve never had blood on my hands. Wow, that’s gross,” he laughs. “It blows my mind every time and we ask every episode and they’re like, ‘No, you need a little bit more.’ It’s crazy.”

Rady promises there’s good stuff coming up in regards to the love triangle, even though Emily remains oblivious to Micah’s feelings for her. He also says that there will be more scenes between Micah and Will as the triangle ramps up. “Given the love triangle thing, they’re starting to play with that dynamic more right now, the further we get into the episodes,” he previews.

“They’ve established that Emily feels this way about Will and Micah feels the same way about Emily and now they’re connecting the dots between Micah and Will. Although Will has no idea that Micah is into Emily,” Rady points out. “So you’re getting to watch the interactions now, we’re in episode 11, you’re getting to watch Micah reading situations between them and being in scenes with them together and clocking it and I hope that there’s more Micah and Will to come,” he adds.

“[Justin] is hilarious to work with and we have a blast on set together, so we’re pushing for it,” he says. “We’re telling people to start campaigning for it, to campaign for more Micah and Will scenes just for our selfish purposes because it’s fun.”

While he admits that the cast jokes on set about the long hours, Rady says that it’s just the nature of the beast when it comes to the way television is filmed. “It’s long hours, it’s fun, it’s great work and there’s nothing else we’d rather be doing, but the hours are long for sure,” Rady adds. He joked about the way he and his castmates start tweeting when they’re on the set well into the early morning hours.

“I think most of the tweets on set happen when we’re in the OR at like five in the morning,” Rady explains. “It’s this tiny little room and it’s really tedious and monotonous with certain shots and the effects and we have to do it from all these different angles and it’s the same shot of my hand going in so we start to get punchy. ‘What time is it? 4:30 a.m.? I’m tweeting this!’ It’s crazy,” he jokes.

“I’ll call my wife and be like, ‘yeah, I’m going to be in surgery probably until 6 a.m., but I’ll be home after that.’ She’s like, ‘Michael, you’re not a doctor. You’re doing a scene. You’re not a doctor.’ I know, but I’m trying to feel like I am, so could you help me?” Rady sighs. “I’m just saying that I’ll be in surgery until 6 a.m.”

Rady is still fairly new to Twitter, having recently joined after a push from his sister and his wife. He admits that he let Facebook get away from him because he didn’t have the time to keep up with commitment, but he likes that Twitter eliminates a level of attachment.

“It’s just instant and nice and wonderful in that respect that I don’t have to sit and go through everything,” Rady says. “Twitter is kind of like my go to news source now. I can’t turn on CNN wherever I am, but I can go on Twitter real fast and see what’s going on. It’s pretty darn instantaneous.”

Rady also called Twitter “brilliant” for the fact that fans can communicate with celebrities so easily, allowing “Suzy Smith in Kansas City, MO to talk to Ellen DeGeneres or Ashton Kutcher.” Rady says he thinks Twitter gets it right.

We broke away from “Emily Owens” to ask Rady if there was any chance he’d be back on Showtime’s “House of Lies” and he was very receptive to the idea. “There’s always a chance,” he says. “I don’t know what that would look like. I would love to. It was so much fun to work on that show and I think anything is possible, especially in that realm. We can all just call the writers and producers and tell them that. Let’s get on that,” he says.

Finally, Rady encouraged people who haven’t to give “Emily Owens, M.D.” a try. “More people just have to hear about it and we’ve got to get people watching it because I don’t hear many bad things about it,” Rady points out. “Everyone who watches it really enjoys it and to know that people enjoy it as much as we do working on it is a really great feeling. That’s very fulfilling,” he adds.

About the author

Mandy Treccia

Mandy Treccia has served as TVSource Magazine’s Executive Editor since 2016, formerly as Editorial Director from 2012-2016. She is an avid TV watcher and card carrying fan girl prone to sudden bursts of emotion, ranging from extreme excitement to blind rage during her favorite shows and has on more than once occasion considered having a paper bag on hand to get her through some tough TV moments. Her taste in TV tends to rival that of a thirteen-year-old girl, but she’s okay with that. Follow her on Twitter at @SourceMandy.